Number of the Day: Feds Need To Hire 270,000

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Get those resumés ready! Job-seekers, check out this info from Thursday’s Washington Post:

The federal government needs to hire more than 270,000 workers for “mission-critical” jobs over the next three years, a surge prompted in part by the large number of baby-boomer federal workers reaching retirement age, according to the results of a government-wide survey being released Thursday.

The numbers also reflect the Obama administration’s intent to take on several enormous challenges, including the repair of the financial sector, fighting two wars, and addressing climate change.

One question, though, is can the federal government find the talent it needs for all these positions. And this job forecast doesn’t include any new government-run insurance plan—which may or may not come into being. But it does include 5,500 new hires for intelligence agencies.

By the way, the Animal House in Afghanistan episode illustrates the need for the feds  to reverse the trend of hiring contractors to do the government’s work. When there are big challenges at hand, sometimes you do need big government.

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DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do things differently in the aftermath of a political crisis: Watergate. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after, and go deep on, stories others don’t. And we’re a nonprofit newsroom because we knew corporations and billionaires would never fund the journalism we do. Our reporting makes a difference in policies and people’s lives changed.

And we need your support like never before to vigorously fight back against the existential threats American democracy and journalism face. We’re running behind our online fundraising targets and urgently need all hands on deck right now. We can’t afford to come up short—we have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

Please help with a donation today if you can—even just a few bucks helps. Not ready to donate but interested in our work? Sign up for our Daily newsletter to stay well-informed—and see what makes our people-powered, not profit-driven, journalism special.

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